J. Arthur Seebach, Jr., editor of Mathematics
Magazinefrom 1976 through 1980, died on Dec. 3, 1996 after a
long struggle with complications of diabetes. He was 58 years
old and had been a member of the Department of Mathematics at
St. Olaf College for 30 years.

Arthur was known to many mathematicians through his extensive
contributions to the publication program of the Association, a
culmination of his life-long fascination with language and
mathematics that has roots in his twin undergraduate majors:
mathematics and Greek. In addition to serving as editor of this
Magazine,he served for fifteen years as Associate Editor
of the American Mathematical Monthly,beginning in 1971 as
Reviews editor, and concluding in 1986 as editor of the
Mathematical Notes section. He served as a member and chair of
writing prize committees for the Allendoerfer Award and the MAA
Book Prize, as a member of the Board of Governors, the Committee
on Publications, and as co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for
FOCUS during its initial years (1981-85). For several years
Arthur was a member of the writing committee for the Graduate
Record Examination in mathematics, serving as chair in 1986 and
1987.

In addition to his role in the MAA publications program, Arthur
was an active early advocate for hands-on computing, beginning
by building his own computers from Heathkits. Even before the
IBM PC and Apple Macintosh came on the market, Arthur helped
prod St. Olaf to make plans for a campus-wide network of
microcomputers, and served as newsletter editor for CIMSE, the
special interest group on Computers in Mathematics and Science
Education. From 1983 through 1987 he served on the MAA
Committee on Computers in Mathematics Education.

In addition to mathematics, editing, and computing, Arthur
maintained a very active side business in antique Studebakers--
stocking and reselling parts, editing a national newsletter, and
maintaining several cars of his own. He also fulfilled a long-
standing interest in music by singing regularly with the Bach
Society of Minnesota. All these interests, and more, he
connected to mathematics through his passion for seeing patterns
in the most unlikely places.

Beginning in 1965 when we both joined the St. Olaf faculty (at
that time a department of five, now over twenty), Arthur and I
worked together as co-authors, co-editors, and co-conspirators
on many projects. The first few was a series of NSF-sponsored
summer undergraduate research projects that led to the
publication of Counterexamples in Topology. Arthur
always viewed this monograph as itself a counterexample to the
view, widespread at the time, that undergraduates could neither
do nor even contribute to research in mathematics. Now, of
course, MAA and AMS have joint committees and program activities
specifically designed to recognize and promote research
activities by undergraduates.

By happy coincidence, Arthur and I published a joint article in
the Monthlyat about the same time as Kenneth O. May, who
invented the Telegraphic Reviews in 1965, decided to find a
successor. Knowing the effort it took to write, single handedly
(and without word processors) 2000 reviews in four years, May
and MonthlyEditor Harley Flanders asked Arthur and me to
set up a reviewing service among the many mathematicians at the
two colleges in Northfield, Minnesota. This system is still in
place, now overseen by Arnold Ostebee, and includes nearly fifty
mathematicians at St. Olaf, Carleton and Macalester Colleges.

In 1985, the MAA asked Arthur and me to serve as co-editors of
Mathematics Magazine,which the Association had acquired
in 1961 from its long-time editor, UCLA mathematician Glenn
James. To increase the appeal of this little-known publication,
we redesigned the format and, with much trepidation, replaced
the table of contents on the front cover with eye-catching (but
not very professional) artwork--often student-drawn cartoons.
Arthur's sense of whimsy, his love of puns, and his proclivity
for obscure connections totally transformed the visual image of
Mathematics Magazine. Cover art, viewed as radical at
the time, has since been emulated by other MAA journals, now
even by the Noticesof the AMS.

Another innovation in Mathematics Magazine--a few pages
of news and announcements (which in September 1976 included the
first published exposition of the new computer-based proof of
the four color theorem)--caught the eye of Ed Beckenbach, then
chair of the MAA Publications Committee. With Ed's urging, the
Association began a newsletter, FOCUS, and asked Arthur and me
to serve as co-chairs of the Advisory Committee during its
initial years. Arthur's experience as editor and publisher of
Studebaker newsletters provided much-needed grounding in reality
as new editor Marcia Sward began the daunting task of creating a
publication ex nihilo. Even then, fifteen years before
it became feasible, Arthur dreamed of on-line electronic
distribution. It is indeed a pity that his eyesight failed
before he could enjoy MAA Online.